British Prime Minister (for now) Theresa May is desperately cobbling together a deal today with a small Northem Irish political party that she needs to stay in power after a disastrous election that destroyed her authority days before Brexit talks are due to start.
So how did we get here? Hedge Fund CIO Eric Peters succinctly sums up the state of play...
Donald Trump's controversial visit to the UK is on hold, according to the Guardian, which reports that the US president, leery of protests upon his arrival, spoke with Prime Minister Theresa May and told her "he didn’t want to proceed with a state visit to U.K. until he received more support for the trip." Trump reportedly told May that he did not want to come if there were "large-scale protests and his remarks in effect put the visit on hold for some time."
"Triple Threat Thursday" is now a distant memory, with both the ECB and Comey testimony "non-events" for the market, although the UK general election was a shocker in which contrary to expectations, Theresa May lost her majority in Parliament, sending sterling tumbling overnight and prompting even more confusion about the UK's political fate and the future of Brexit. That however did not spook risk assets, and on Friday morning, European stocks gained with Asian stocks little changed, while S&P500 futures were set for new all time highs. Just like after Brexit, it was U.K.
It was supposed be a UK general election that solidified Conservative dominance, and boosted Brexit leverage. It ended up being the opposite, after British voters delivered a stinging rebuke to Prime Minister Theresa May and her ruling Conservative party, depriving her of a majority, resulting in a "hung parliament" and thrusting the country back into a new period of uncertainty as it prepares to depart from the European Union.
A quick recap of what happened overnight:
Live Feed:
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Interesting point: Turnout was extremely high at 63% - almost +10% higher than last time. This should favour Labour nationwide.